Effective Tuesday April 3, 2012 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), 1800 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Wakefield (AKQ), Virginia, will reconfigure its marine, fire and public weather zones to transfer portions of the lower James, York, and Rappahannock Rivers from fire and public weather zones to marine zones.

Currently there are four marine zones covering the lower Chesapeake Bay. Four new marine zones will be created covering the portions of the James, York, and RappahannockRivers removed from the fire and public weather zones.Customer feedback has identified these areas as containing high ship traffic. Reconfiguration will improve the precision of marine warnings, forecasts, and services by allowing them to be more area specific.

Effective April 3, 2012, WFO Wakefield marine area of responsibility will be expanded to cover the following:

1). A new marine zone, UGC ANZ635 (RappahannockRiver from Urbanna to Windmill Point) will be created from the RappahanockRiver portions of fire and public weather zones VAZ078 (Lancaster) and VAZ085 (Middlesex).

2). A new marine zone, UGC ANZ636 (York River), will be created from the York River portions of fire and public weather zones VAZ084 (Gloucester), VAZ090 (JamesCity) and VAZ091 (York).

3). A new marine zone, UGC ANZ637 (James River from Jamestown to the James River Bridge will be created from the James River portions of fire and public weather zones VAZ089 (Surry), VAZ093 (Isle of Wight) and VAZ094 (Newport News/Hampton).

4). A new marine zone, UGC ANZ638 (James River from the James RiverBridge to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel) will be created from the James River portions of fire and public weather zones VAZ095 (Norfolk/Portsmouth) and VAZ096 (Suffolk).

The following fire and public weather zones from WFO Wakefield will be affected (none are outside WFO Wakefield marine area of responsibility):

Lancaster VAZ078

Gloucester VAZ084

Middlesex VAZ085

Surry VAZ089

James City VAZ090

York VAZ091

Isle of Wight VAZ093

Newport News/Hampton VAZ094

Norfolk/Portsmouth VAZ095

Suffolk VAZ096

Effective April 3, 2012 the marine zone with Universal Geographic Code (UGC) designation of ANZ632, currently named Chesapeake Bay from New Point Comfort to Little Creek, VA, will undergo the following changes:

1). ANZ632, named Chesapeake Bay from New Point Comfort to Little Creek VA, will be split into two zones.The marine area east of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel will remain unchanged.The marine area west of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel will be merged with new marine zone ANZ638, James River from the James RiverBridge to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.